Carroll: Southern California fans “understand what they just watched”

Posted by Mike Wilkening on February 3, 2014, 10:03 AM EST

AP

At his Monday-morning post-Super Bowl XLVIII press conference, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said he saw parallels between some of USC’s biggest wins during his tenure and Seattle’s rout of Denver on Sunday night.

“This game was very similar to the Oklahoma game,” Carroll said, referring to USC’s 55-19 rout in the 2004 Orange Bowl. “This game was very similar to the multiple Rose Bowl championship games. It was just like those games. It felt like it, it looked like it, the score was like it, the offense, the defense, the special teams.

“Something’s going on. I really can’t tell you exactly what it is, but something’s going on, because I sat back there and by the end of the first quarter, I’m like, ‘Oh, shoot, here it goes,’ and the score — bang, bang, bang, bang — it’s 22-0 at halftime.

“There’s a lot to it, and we’re very proud of it. And I’m thrilled that we’ve seen it in one area and been able to bring it to the NFL and recreate it.”

Carroll also said that he believed fans in Southern California could especially appreciate what the Seahawks had done, given the Trojans’ play in big bowl games.

“For the fans that have watched us over the years in Southern California, I would think they took great pride in what happened last night, because they understand what they just watched,” Carroll said. “There’s something about that. There’s something pretty powerful about that understanding. And hopefully, we’ll start stepping into the next one. We’ve done this before, and we’ll see how we do.”

Any discussion of Carroll at USC is perhaps tempered somewhat by his departure just before the football program was hit with sanctions. Nevertheless, his Trojans teams were outstanding in big games, with a 7-2 mark in postseason play. And in the NFL, his teams have won at least one playoff game in three of his four seasons.

Indeed, there is now a sustained track record of success that can be tracked from college back to the pros.

52 Responses to “Carroll: Southern California fans “understand what they just watched””

livenbreathefootball says:Feb 3, 2014 10:10 AM

So in other words, he cheated. Highest rate of PEDs violations of any team and players admit they hold on every play. Yep, great dominating team there. Wonder how good they would be if they followed the rules.

Every NFL team needs to look at what Seattle did this year and realize defense wins championships and a whole lot of games. Every team needs to beef up their defense. you dont need an all star offense to win the superbowl and the seahawks proved that. Teams like the packers and such need to get a solid defense or they wont go anywhere in the playoffs anytime soon.

osiris33 says:Feb 3, 2014 10:14 AM

It used to be the Patriots who thought outside the box and did things differently. Now it’s the Seahawks who turned the conventional NFL wisdom on its ear and created a great team with one of the best defenses of all time. For that, Pete Carroll & John Schneider deserve the accolades they’ve been denied so far.

Pete got them one national championship and left the program in shambles, total dissaray. I don’t think he really holds any special place in the hearts of Southern Cal fans, a lot of them probably hate him. So this little shout out to them is a bit of a head scratcher.

seals1 says:Feb 3, 2014 10:16 AM

Wow Pete, You are getting brash. We watched as you left USC on fire for cheating and now we are watching it again.

Career back up, 7th rounder gets coached into a 10 tackle, INT TD, Fumble recovery and then he hit the weight room and benched to settled down after the game.

Pete, you are the greatest. Loved everything about this Super Bowl. Hall of Fame coach! Just so proud of my Seahawks being world champs. Haters will hate but winners just win. I appreciated every second of what the Seahawks did last night.

I’m torn on how to feel about Pete Carroll winning a Super Bowl. On the one hand I’m happy for him and genuinely like him. He took his lumps in his early NFL career, learned from it and used it to be successful in the NCAA and the NFL. Dude’s a fighter.

On the other hand, the entire reason he ducked out of USC was he knew the hammer was coming down. He left 18- to 20-year-old kids behind to feel the sanctions of the NCAA while he got off freely. Terrelle Pryor was suspended 5 games when he entered the NFL, upholding his NCAA suspension for reasons of “integrity”. But Pete Carroll’s former program was put on probation for two years and lost scholarships and bowl games, and none of that carried over to him. It is tough to root for him knowing what mess he left behind.

Maybe this is more of a question about the NFL not holding coaches to the same standards as players. I don’t know. I just know I would’ve felt a lot better about Pete Carroll winning a Super Bowl if he didn’t leave USC the way he did.

Hahaha figures some cry baby fan would bring up a non relivant old ped suspension. Just face it, the seahawks are the toughet team in the nfl. It would have been the same outcome if your team even had a chance to make it to the SB

The Seahawks have the same amount if ped suspensions as like 10 teams this year including the broncos …

Their is only 1 player on the Seattle entire roster who was suspended for peds Irvin .and through the past 3 seasons the redskins had as many or more than Seattle but THIS IS NEVER MENTIONED .. Hawks might have regained total players suspended but look at the people suspended . Their a bunch of bench and practice squad players or players who never played .. Embarrassing how people stretch this stat out .

Seahawks are one of the youngest Super Bowl champs and talent stacked up . Great being a hawks fan

Amen allidoiswin- but hilarious ctiggs! I guess thats why kap turned it over 4 times and doug baldwin went off on the 49ers? Or maybe thats why the poor 49er D let lynch break loose for 42 yards also? Seahawks will own the nfc for years to come

As a USC fan, it`s a True statement by Pete. I don’t respect how he left SC, but it is what it is. As a 49ers fan, I must say Congrats to the 12th man and all Seagulls fans. Your earned it. But you did steal that name from Texas A&M, but that’s another thing.

jtbsteeler says:Feb 3, 2014 10:44 AM

Thanks for destroying the donkeys. The will fall back to mediocrity. Manning went to the AFC West so he could dominate. The NFC West would’ve destroyed him like last night.

allidoiswin55 says:
Feb 3, 2014 10:31 AM
The Seahawks have the same amount if ped suspensions as like 10 teams this year including the broncos …

Their is only 1 player on the Seattle entire roster who was suspended for peds Irvin .and through the past 3 seasons the redskins had as many or more than Seattle but THIS IS NEVER MENTIONED .. Hawks might have regained total players suspended but look at the people suspended . Their a bunch of bench and practice squad players or players who never played .. Embarrassing how people stretch this stat out .

Seahawks are one of the youngest Super Bowl champs and talent stacked up . Great being a hawks fan
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What on earth are you talking about? In the time since Carroll took over, the Seahawks lead the NFL with 5 PED suspensions, which would be 6 if Sherman hadn’t gotten off on a technicality.

I mean, root for whoever you want, but at least have your facts straight.

stixzidinia says:Feb 3, 2014 11:00 AM

Every NFL team needs to look at what Seattle did this year and realize defense wins championships and a whole lot of games. Every team needs to beef up their defense. you dont need an all star offense to win the superbowl and the seahawks proved that. Teams like the packers and such need to get a solid defense or they wont go anywhere in the playoffs anytime soon.

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Seattle fans are new to this, so we can forgive them their igorance and naivete. You team has depth because it has a bunch of young guys in key positions that are in their first contract. They will be due to be paid very shortly, and Seattle will find out that success drives up the market value of the impending free agents. Seattle won’t be able to keep that team together. The Packers had to pay their QB, and so will Seattle. And NFL QB contracts hinder a team’s ability to have depth (never mind what Sherman will be due to get paid). Just ask Baltimore.

Say what you want about the sanctions. Caroll didn’t make them take PEDs. This is pure coaching and leadership. I saw a stat that something like 60% of the team was drafted in rounds 4th and 7th showing that they can get athletes and coach em up. Congrats to the Seahawks! Skol VIKINGS!!!

Just wait until a few years from now when Malcolm Smith is stripped of his Super Bowl MVP…

pongonfl says:Feb 3, 2014 11:03 AM

The team they have is built with lower draft picks, but they are all on low cost first term contracts, they will have some decisions to make this coming year.
From the coverage I could not tell if there was much holding going on at all. its like they only had a camera on the pocket the whole game

Comparisons to college football programs are ridiculous. Yes, college games can be that lopsided, but the Super Bowl should not be. The Seahawks played at a far higher speed/intensity, and the Broncos seemed unable to even contend with something as basic as the crowd noise.

Ha! Yah Pete, I’m sure the USC faithful was real excited to see the charlatan, cheating, spineless-man of no character succeed somewhere else, after he left in the middle of the night with NCAA sactions looming.

Congratulations Seattle. I’m an Eagles fan. Seattle has a great great team. That defense is unbelievable with a great scheme. This is easily the best superbowl champion in the last 3 years, and probably significantly longer but I’ll limit the analysis to whom I can easily remember. I thought the Eagles were two to three moves away. After watching the defense last night, it’s obvious we need at least two really good off-seasons to seriously compete with Seatle.

Not to take anything away from the Seahawks- I believe they were clearly the best team in football all year. They tied for the best regular season record with Denver and played a much harder schedule.

But they are paying their entire QB roster less than some teams paid their backup this year. They are paying their entire secondary less than some teams paid their nickel corner this year. That’s great, but it can’t last.

So unless their GM can keep catching lighting in a bottle year after year, there are going to be some down seasons.

Enjoy this while it lasts.

fanofevilempire says:Feb 3, 2014 11:17 AM

Carroll for President.

redandgoldhitman52 says:Feb 3, 2014 11:20 AM

mondzy805 says:
As a USC fan, it`s a True statement by Pete. I don’t respect how he left SC, but it is what it is. As a 49ers fan, I must say Congrats to the 12th man and all Seagulls fans. Your earned it. But you did steal that name from Texas A&M, but that’s another thing.
…………………………
49ers fan being a usc fan is laughable. you are a bandwagon fan. thats like a sf giants fan, sf 49ers fan, golden state warriors fan rooting for the L.A. dodgers or the L.A. lakers.

purpleguy says:Feb 3, 2014 11:34 AM

You’ve got to hand it to the Hawks GM drafting all those quality players in the lower rounds — other NFL teams can try and replicate those draft efforts, but teams have been trying to have complete drafts for years and years.

Carroll is a worthy champion? Just like at USC, when he abandoned the program he helped cheat it’s way to victory, and took no responsibility for it? Now he heads a team that lead’s the league in PED suspensions. Big surprise. The Seahawks are a good team and deserved their win, but Carroll will always be a cheater, and is NOT worthy of the Lombardi trophy. He’s an embarrassment.

granadafan says:Feb 3, 2014 11:36 AM

U$C earned hundreds of millions in donations, merchandising, sold out stadiums, TV/Radio contracts while Pete was there winning year after year. He returned the program to prominence after some bad years and had a whole generation of young athletes who were enamored with U$C. Yeah, he turned a blind eye to the likes of Reggie Bush and others who accepted money from boosters and agents, and left the program in sanctions.

U$C didn’t have to give the hundreds of millions back. They got a brand new basketball facility, a nicely renovated stadium, and brand new football training facilities. Those don’t happen if Pete Carroll wasn’t there winning.

osiris33 says:
Feb 3, 2014 10:14 AM
Now it’s the Seahawks who turned the conventional NFL wisdom on its ear and created a great team with one of the best defenses of all time.
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You must be a new NFL fan (read: typical bandwagon Seattle fan). The conventional wisdom for NFL teams to win a championships is and always has been defense. There’s been an offensive focus on the passing game in recent years because of rule changes, but everyone knows defense wins championships.

So I have to ask… what the hell are you talking about, and what planet are you living on?

As a USC grad and season ticket holder, Carroll was exactly right. I was at the USC-OU game and at halftime last night I made the same comment about the parallels between SB48 and 2004 BCS.

Carroll/USC haters are jealous and don’t have a clue about the sport or facts. NCAA sanctions coaches but after 5 years of investigation didn’t cite Carroll, period. Nobody says boo about Chip Kelly and he left in the same timeframe (spring) as Carroll and Kelly got an 18-month show-cause penalty (which Goddell ignored). And saying Sherman got off on a technicality…yes, he had a prescription! Haters=fools.

Carroll’s teams always have swarming, physical, athletic defenses. Usually highly penalized, but also making plays nobody else makes through hyper-aggressive play. That’s great coaching. To deny or denigrate that shows a marked ignorance if the game.

chodetoranto says:Feb 3, 2014 12:38 PM

Not a fan of either team but all you little whinny Niner fans are just making yourself look real bad right now. No need to cry just cuz kaepernick cant get the job done… damn

doe22us says:Feb 3, 2014 12:57 PM

The No 1 rule of man is self-preservation and looking out for No 1, it sometimes is hypocritical, self-serving etc, but that is life unfortunately/fortunately. It takes a man to admit mistakes, but it is what it is. He did run of course he did.

dinofrank60 says:Feb 3, 2014 12:57 PM

Jeez, Pete. You just won the Super Bowl. Spare us the higher meaning. Enjoy this bad boy.

ghost26 says:Feb 3, 2014 1:11 PM

Not of fan of either team either but I was shocked at how badly the entire Seahawks team dominated the Broncos in every facet. And yes, it was a complete embarrassment to the entire Broncos organization.

The two best teams in the NFL this year were BY FAR the Seahwawks & the Niners. The Seahawks have a window of another two years b/c of their youth BUT make no mistake that Earl Thomas, Richard Sherman, Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril & Russell Wilson will all want to break the bank w/ their next contracts. B/c of the salary cap the Seahawks will run into the same problem that the Niners faced w/ Dashon Goldson last year & will face w/ Donte Whitner this year. You just can’t keep teams together the way great teams used to do back in the day & clearly the league likes it that way.

However, give John Schneider & Pete Carroll a TON of credit for finding & then developing players who weren’t high draft picks like Sherman & Chancellor or guys who weren’t even drafted like Baldwin & Kearse. If (& that’s a HUGE IF) they can continue to find ‘diamonds in the rough’ going forward then the Seahawks are going to dominate for years to come.

You can say what you want about us 49ers fans but until your team is good enough to have a game decided by a bad call or two I’d keep my mouth shut. Only Seahawk fans have any kind of bragging rights All others need not say anything. It will be either the 49ers or Seahawks for the foreseeable future!!!! Go NINERS!!!!